MeloD Corporate Director Certified Program

What is Corporate Governance?

How do you ensure that a bank runs smoothly? How do you ensure your company’s performance
is in line with what regulators want? The simple answer is corporate governance.

The system you have to run your organization should minimize risk and guarantee higher returns
for investors. Your operations must be effective and efficient. It's the reason why you need
corporate governance: to oil the engine of trust among stakeholders across your company.

Some countries maintain an excellent corporate governance framework. The result? Superior
risk/return profiles when compared with countries with weaker frameworks, other things being
relatively equal.

Did you know that investors generally prefer and have high regard for equity markets operating
within the parameters of secure corporate governance? No serious investor enjoys being at the
mercy of financial tsunamis. When the waves roll, there's only one word to describe markets that
only make feeble attempts to protect the investor: vulnerable.

Corporate Governance is:

“the system by which companies are directed and controlled.” - Adrian Cadbury

Why Corporate Governance?

Good corporate governance is necessary to achieve the following goals:

 Lower corporate risk for your company

 Instill confidence in shareholders that their investment is secure

 Enable your company to access more funds

 Make your executive team more proactive and effective

 Improve information flows and enhance decision-making

 It’ll improve your organization’s overall efficiency

 Accelerate company performance and growth

Program Objectives
Do you seek the critical tools that will serve your new and veteran board members and executives
well in the emerging business climate? That’s precisely what MEIoD’s IFC-powered Corporate
Director’s Certification Program guarantees.

Strategy by itself is never enough. You need a composite team to ensure that every detail is in
place and goes according to plan. The Institute of Finance Corporation has designed the Board of
Directors Program to deliver the goods your need to improve your organization across the board
and ensure investors keep funneling money your way. This program places a high premium on
long-term planning and future-focused corporate practices.

What new insights will your board and management team learn? You’ll learn modern tools and
practices that’ll foster a culture of sound corporate governance throughout your company.

Your business is likely facing the unique corporate governance challenges of business. We realize
that diagnosing the problem is good, but administering a cure is better. That's why our program
also provides tested structures and strategies you can plug into your enterprise to keep your
business resilient regardless of challenges.

The program does more than weigh down participants with theory after theory. Our approach is to
explore practical tools for fundamental business practices that keep your operations chugging
along nicely.

We just don’t teach either. We’ve baked peer-led interaction into our curriculum to encourage
participant contributions.

Targeted Participants
Who’s the Board of Directors Program for? Ideal candidates for the IFC program include board
members, board chairs, corporate directors, and other top-tier executives in the Middle East and
North Africa region. This program is suitable for your people if their corporate goals include:

 profitable sustainability,

 a professional approach to performance issues,

 expansion,

 succession, and

 access to capital.

The best part is that you’ll learn to apply the viable Corporate Governance framework and best
practices developed by the IFC.
Why Should Your Board Take The MEIoD IFC Directors
Program?
There are various reasons why this program is top-rated among Corporate Governance experts
and board members across many organizations:

1. It's highly credible and comes from a credible organization – the International Finance
Corporation (IFC).

2. It’s tailored to businesses in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, so it takes
cognizance of the nuances of doing business in the region.

3. Participating in and completing this program leads to a high-value certification. Besides, it

provides a springboard to new and exciting board opportunities for participants. MEIoD
takes the burden to nominate you to put your training to good practical use.

4. More than 1,500 have participated in the program and are currently enjoying resounding
success.

Program Structure
The two-part program structure consists of 22 modules and accompanying case studies.

The duration of the program is a total of 8 days in two months – 4 consecutive days per month.

Your board members may take the program in English or Arabic, whichever you find to be more
convenient for them.

IFC maintains a Corporate Governance Methodology that drives the core focus of the program.
Your executives learn all they need for sound corporate governance processes and structures in
your organization. To be sure, these are some aspects of corporate governance they'll experience
in the program:

 Commitment to Good Corporate Governance

Would you like your board to understand the art of focusing on effective structures and
processes that will ensure good corporate governance outcomes? It ultimately culminates
in how the board engages with management. Therefore:

a) Develop an understanding of where your business operates beyond geography.

Some material risks and opportunities matter to your business.

b) Develop a business model that is sufficient for the emerging trends in your industry.

c) Develop and manage corporate resources in an effective way.

 Board Structure and Functioning

 Do you wish to foster a competent, effective, and resilient board in your business?. We'll
also touch on key essentials, including who should be on your board, the structure of the
board, and the work procedures.

A board is only effective if:

a) Governance equips it with tools to guide, monitor, and report on the

organization’s sustainability indices.

b) The board membership is composed so that members' expertise enables it to

understand and handle sustainability issues with potency and poise.

 Management Control

What’s the best way for your board to achieve comprehensive management control, while
creating an environment with excellent internal control, risk management, and trustworthy
financials?

How is management analyzing and dealing with critical social and environmental
trends in your business climate? What is of the utmost urgency, and what will
become so in the near future?

 Disclosure and Transparency

Would you like to engage with stakeholders, including shareholders and regulators in a
timely, accurate, relevant, complete, and actionable way?

What do stakeholders expect? How do their expectations impact business strategy?

The board must ensure it makes the time to deal with material sustainability issues
while engaging with critical stakeholders.

 Shareholder Practices

Protecting all levels of shareholders from insider abuse and treating them equitably.

 Family Governance

If it’s a family business, how do you develop the appropriate mechanisms to regulate family
involvement in the business and deal with other family matters decisively?

Training Methodology
The IFC Directors Program features great content. But, content is nothing without delivery. We’re
bringing on board expert instructors to cover the full scope of governance issues in business.

The instructors will deliver the course in an engaging way that encourages participant interaction
and peer discussions. A great deal of learning will result from this.
The course content will be available in these various formats that participants will find interesting:

 presentations

 articles, papers, and other background materials

 case studies, to drive discussions

To be clear, the 14 hands-on instructors will teach the 22-plus modules and case studies of the
program in two 4-day (consecutive) sessions over two months. If the participant is attending online,
the duration will be 12 non-consecutive days.

Corporate Directors Certified Program Outline

Part I – Board Basic

 Rationale for good Corporate Governance

 The Effective Board – roles and authorities, duties, and liabilities

 The Board Composition, structure, and need for independent directors

 Executive and non-executive evaluation and remuneration

 Working procedures of the Board and its Committees

Part II Board Specifics – Practical Tools

 The role of the Board in Setting Strategy

 Choosing and evaluating the CEO

 A guide to Succession Planning

 What every director needs to know about Accounting and Finance

Part III Board Specifics – Disclosure and Transparency

 The board’s role in information disclosure and transparency

 The board and risk management

 Establishing internal audit and control procedures

 The board’s audit committee

 How to interact with the external auditor

Part IV Board Specifics – Shareholder Rights

 Preparing for and conducting the annual general meeting

 The board’s role in protecting shareholder rights

  Related party transaction & insider trading

 Managing corporate conflicts

 The role of the board in setting the company’s dividend policy

Further Information
Thank you for reading through this program brochure. Would you like to take the leap with the IFC-
backed Middle East Institute of Directors program? You can request more information or register
right away if you contact us now.

Maali Khader

Email: Maali@MEIoD.org

Phone: +971 4 401 8506

Dubai, UAE